StarWars: Pride's Prize
by FTeik
Summary: In the twentyfive years of Emperor Palpatine's rule over the galaxy the GalacticEmpire had to fight a lot more enemies, than just the RebelAlliance. This is the story of one of them.
1. Chapter 1

StarWars and all related material is property of GeorgeLucas and LFL. This is a piece of fan-faction and no money is made. I'm doing this just for fun. And since this wonderful universe belongs to somebody else the only payment i can expect is the feedback of the readers, so don't hesitate to give it.

Before you ask, i removed my other two stories „Union of the Empire's greatest Warriors" and „The tale of Darth Vader's Son" for an overwork and editing.

Pride's Prize - Part I

"Sir, all units of the fleet are in position and ready for the jump."

"Very good, Captain Gerla. Admiral ... ."

"I have heard it the first time, Commander. Captain Gerla, i want a connection to the Muun-Twelve Rugar."

"Yes, Sir."

Martel Uther focused his attention at the large hologram atop the chart-desk. To an uninformed observer the imperial fleet displayed would have looked insignificant, tiny dagger-shaped dots surrounded by even smaller triangles inside a cloud of constant electrical flickers. Just that the dagger-shaped dots were Star Dreadnoughts, the smaller triangles the images of Battlecruisers and Star Destroyers and the flickers symbolised the scores of frigates and assault-transports, that accompanied the fleet. Turning towards the image of their target his lips turned into a thin line and he shook his head. "It is not going to work this time." he muttered to himself.

"You have an objection, Commander?" his superior noted.

"I just said, i don't think, that it will work this time. People like the Yirrho simply aren't going to roll over just because we show them our mighty warships. That might have worked for the Diamala, the Dwen'myke or the Wukkarans, but the Yirrho are fiercely independent." Uther explained.

"True. But we have to give them this last chance to join the empire in peace, since the diplomatic attempts have failed so far. We can't afford to have a star nation as powerful and wealthy as the Yirrho-Worlds to stay independant. Such an example could encourage other planets, if not entire sectors to rethink their allegiance to the imperial state." the Admiral stated. "On the other side, if it is our kind of example - through their peaceful surrender or our victory in battle - one of the benefits might be the stabilisation of the entire region. Not to forget the wealth those worlds have to offer."

"As you said, if they don't take the chance we offer them we have to achive victory in battle. And that might become very costly. Just remember, what they did to the forces of the Seperatists during the clone-wars."

"I haven't forgotten about that, Commander. In fact some of our intelligence is based on extrapolated data captured from the Seperatists. We should have sufficent forces to defeat the Yirrho."

"IF those extrapolations are correct. For my taste they are a little on the low side."

"The estimates take the limitations on economy enforced by an isolationistic policy into account as well as the possible growth in population since the clone-war. Until the Yirrho increased their military men-power-pool by cloning or the use of droids there should be no justification for your concerns." the Admiral explained.

"And all those problems are easy to solve with the amount of wealth the Yirrho control." Uther argued.

"I can assure you, that they haven't done something like that so stop worrying. At the end of the day the Yirrho-worlds will be ours."

"If you say, Admiral." Martel Uther was about to give it up, but then a suspicion entered his mind. It wasn't typical for his superior to be careless so there had to be something else. "You're optimism has nothing to do with out visitor from Coruscant?"

"Visitors, Captain." corrected the Admiral. "And this is something you aren't supposed to know."

Uther cursed his tongue and curiosity. In fact he wanted to bite it of. He decided to play it down to placate his superior. "This is a warship, Sir. Nothing happens unnoticed. And rumors spread fast."

The Admiral lowered his voice until only Uther was able to hear him. "I think it is more about your old comrade Captain Gerla still feeling guilty about his old friend and class-mate being demoted to "Commander", because said friend has a position at my staff and there can be only one captain on a warship of His Imperial Majesty. So he let you in on some things happening aboard. Isn't that so "Captain" Uther?"

Martel Uther was at a loss for words. "How ... ."

"This is a warship, Captain. Nothing happens unnoticed." The stern look of the Admiral could have cut plasteel. "Let me give you an advice. Not today, but on other occasions the success of a mission might depend on absolute secrecy. Even if not, it is better to keep your tongue guarded. You're not high enough on the rank-ladder to have noticed already, but this is no longer the Republic-fleet under a different name. Things are changing and the changes are slowly, but implaccably dripping down from the top. Others might be less understanding than me. Have i made myself clear?"

"Crystal-clear, Sir." Uther suddenly felt like a cadett again. He was saved from further embarrassment by Captain Gerla from the bridge.

"Admiral, we have established a holo-communication with the Muun-Twelve Rugar of the Yirrho-Worlds."

The hologram of the Imperial Fleet and the Yirrho-Cluster was replaced by the image of a tall, broad-shouldered humanoid. The hologram appeared in different shades of blue, but Uther knew, that the man was wearing a black overall under a darkblue cloak with a high collar, exposing a lightgreen face dominated by golden eyes and a thick mane of black hair. Three thin vertical slits over a broad mouth served as nose.

"I am Rugar, Muun-Twelve of the Yirrho, human. What do you want and how do you intend to pay for it?"

The traditional greeting of the Yirrho. Revealing their only interest in outsiders and straight to the point. It wouldn't do them any good today.

"I'm Fleetadmiral Osvald Teshik of the Galactic Empire. I want the Yirrho-Worlds to become a member of the GalacticEmpire, to turn over their military ships and ground-installations to my men and to fullfill the obligations placed on states under Imperial Law. In exchange the Yirrho-people and their assets will enjoy the protection of the Imperial Military, your worlds will be only lightly garrisoned and you will be able to govern yourself. It would be very profitable for the Yirrho to join the empire, you wouldn't have to maintain an expansive warfleet of your own with the empire protecting you and you would have access to every world in the empire for trade."

"Considering what is available to you i would have expected a High-Admiral, if not a completely new rank given the way your employer is increasing his assets." Rugar answered. The Yirrho paused for a moment. "Under economic terms your offer is a tempting one, if the monetary income would surpass the financal obligations. Security and protection however are some of the few things not to be outsourced and it is the policy of the Yirrho-Worlds, that if people want to trade with them, they have to come to us. Your terms won't be accepted by the Yirrho."

"You won't get better conditions. Are your people aware of the possible costs a decline of our offer would contain?" Teshik asked.

"A consensus of all voting Muuns has agreed with seventy percent majority that increase in wealth is better achived by free entrapeneurs, than employees impeded by restrictions. It is this conviction, that has prevented us from joining the Republic, that has prevented us from taking sides during your clone-war and that prevents us from joining your empire."

"Is this your last word, Muun-Twelve?"

"If you don't offer better terms there is nothing more to negotiate, Admiral Teshik." Rugar answered and terminated the connection.

For a moment Teshik and Uther stared at the empty space where moments before the hologram of the Yirrho had been surprised and shocked by the arrogance displayed by the Muun-Twelve.

"Then it will be a hostile take-over." Teshik muttered, still using business-speak.

"I don't understand it, Sir. They have to know, that they can't resist us. Even if they're able to fight us off they can't resist forever."

"Arrogance, Captain." explained Teshik. "Their wealth and power have made them arrogant and proud. And today a lot of people have to pay this pride's prize." He took a deep breath. "Tell Captain Gerla to start the countdown for the jump to hyperspace. All ships on Condition One."

"Yes, Sir." Uther answered. He walked over to the com, preparing himself for battle. Battle and the inevitable bloodshed connected with it.

"And all of it because of a black hole ... ." he muttered.


	2. Chapter 2

No comment, no reply? I'm a little disappointed.

Oh well, here is the next part:

Pride's Prize – Chapter Two

A galaxy doesn't travel alone through the darkness of the universe. Usually it is part of a larger group of several galaxies, each of which has its own entourage of satellite-galaxies and small clusters of stars. The galaxy that had been ruled first by the Galactic Republic and then the Empire was no exception. The power of gravity had brought the small and the large islands of stars together. In some cases it had even caused them to merge with each other.

One of these cases had been the Yirrho-Cluster, billions of years ago. An almost perfect sphere four hundred lightyears in diameter and filled with close to seven thousand stars now part of the main galactic disk thirty thousand lightyears away from the core of the galaxy. If the only sentient species living inside the cluster had evolved there or if its origins had been somewhere else, this information had been lost in the mists of time. If there had been any archeological or antropological expeditions from outside the cluster during the times of the Old Republic they had made it to the starports of the major Yirrho-Worlds - if they had been lucky enough to get that far - only to get told by the starport-officials to kriff off. Actually the Yirrho were too polite to express it that drastic, but the result was the same. They had never invited others to their worlds and they had never requested or demanded to became part of a larger organisation or government. In essence they had lived and let lived with the only thing resembling foreign-policy their insistance, that their cluster was left to them. A claim they were willing and capable to back up with military force if necessary. The last group, that had been forced to learn that lesson the hard way had been the Confederacy of Independent Systems, urged by the TechnoUnion and the TradeFederation to bring the cluster under controll after they had failed to do so on their own years prior.

And now the GalacticEmpire was knocking at the door of the Yirrho.

There were several reasons for the Yirrho-Worlds to be so desired.

The first was the close position of the cluster to several hyperspace-lanes through the rim-territories and from the core towards the outer rim and wild space. Then it was more or less a border for eleven sectors. Whoever controlled the cluster could control those hyperspace-lanes and use it as a marching up point for operations into the surrounding sectors.

The second reason was the black hole at the centre of the cluster. Black Holes were the locations, where the hypermatter that fueled the large starships and satisfied the power-demands of the densly populated coreworlds was collected and refined. BlackHoles were also the origin of the subatomar knots of space-time, that made repulsor-devices work. Most black holes were inside the core, while they were rare in the rim. And only few living in the rim-territories were able or had the resources to exploit a black hole.

The Yirrho had belonged to those few.

Using the income generated by their black hole the Yirrho invested their money into an impressive military and industries that soon supplied the worlds of the galaxy with goods technologically superior to their GalacticRepublic counterparts in the same prize-class or goods less expansive than products of the same quality, what had annoyed countless directors and presidents of the galactic mega-corporations.

To bring their goods to their customers the Yirrho had maintained an impressive merchant-marine, what had annoyed the large shipping-conglomerates and especially the Trade-Federation (after its foundation a few hundred years ago).

Their unwillingness to join the GalacticRepublic had annoyed the half of the senate, that had wanted to put the Yiirho under (special) Republic-legislation to placate its supporters in the economy and it had annoyed the half of the senate, who viewed the GalacticRepublic as the most progressive force of the galaxy and epitome of civilisation and who therefor couldn't understand how somebody couldn't want to be a part of that.

Finally they had the Jedi worried, because they didn't fall under Republic legislation and the enthusiam with which the Yirrho persecuted their scientific research into every area didn't help to appease their fears what upsetting consequences the results of those researchs would have on the peace and stability of the galaxy. The invention of hyperdrive had made galaxy-wide wars possible, the invention of droids had put countless low educated people out of work and who could know, what the Yirrho might come up with, if they were given enough time. Widespread rumors among the citicens of the galaxy claimed the Yirrho to have all the technologies available or in development that were usually shown in the ScienceFiction-shows of the holonet: time-machines, matter-transfer-devices, AIs able to run entire civilisations, portals to other universes, transgalactic drivesystems and everything else the uninspired writers of these shows could come up with.

Nobody could say, if the Yirrho really had those devices, but the possibility alone annoyed the TechnoUnion.

The Yirrho hadn't cared for that. Not for the corporations, not for the shipping-lines, not for the senate, not for the Jedi. They had stayed in their cluster, sold their goods and hypermatter and counted the money they made. Or so the majority of beings thought. This would have come to an end with the passing of a law, that forbade Yirrho-ships to enter the orbit of Republic-worlds and obligated those worlds to enforce that law. The plan worked, but in a different way than the officials of the Republic had hoped: Already then the Yirrho had started to mothball their merchant-fleet. They didn't need it anymore, since now their customers were willing to come to them. Possessing Yirrho-products had become a sign of status. Merchants, who traded with Yirrho-goods made a small fortune either with the goods they transported or with stories of the wonders they had seen. The Yirrho made a large fortune, since they could demand higher prices. The Republic did little to impede the trade, since the Yirrho had established themself as the Republic's supplier of hyperdrive-fuel in that region of space.

Things continued like this till the outbreak of the clone-wars and even during the war for some time, with the Yirrho staying neutral, offering a safe heaven for ships of both sides and selling their goods and fuel as before. Until the CIS tried to bring the cluster under its control and got its nose bloodied. Since then nobody was allowed inside the cluster, trade and fuel-deliveries had come to a stop. The Empire wanted to change this, but since it didn't satisfy itself with a return to the status before the war, but tried to bring the Yirrho-Cluster under imperial control the diplomatic efforts were doomed to fail.

And now it was the job of the Imperial Armed Forces to finally "bring the Yirrho into the galactic family".

---

"The Imperial Fleet has made the jump to hyperspace."

"And so it begins." Rugar, Muun-Twelve of the Yiirho, muttered. He let his eyes wonder over the large room of the command-center, his gaze resting shortly on every of his subordinates and then turning back to the large screen at the wall opposite from him. "Their heading?" he asked aloud.

"Yrr-17, according to their observed vector." a Muun-Four reported. "From their entry-acceleration we estimate them to be here in twenty minutes."

"Doesn't have to mean much." Rugar commented. "They could still change course for another destination while in hyperspace."

"Yrr-17 is the entry-point to our home-system." Rugar's second-in-command Zaar stated. "Where else should they go?"

"They could make a direct assault on "Gumolltz Eye" and the hypermatter-refineries." Rugar mused. "Make a direct grab for the BlackHole. Or they try to make a diversion, before attacking us here."

"Unlikely. Whoever controls this system, controls the cluster." Zaar explained. "To attack anything else is a waste of resources."

"Not if this human Admiral wants to test our strenght first, before going to battle with his main fleet." Rugar turned to the Yirrho coordinating the sensor- and communications-section of the command-centre. "Ighat, were all ships of the humans on the same vector when they made the jump?"

The Muun-Seven started an inquery into the reports from the probe-droids the Yirrho had sent to observe the Imperials. Seconds later he had an answer for Rugar.

"No, August One, they weren't. There were six small groups of ships jumping into different directions than their main fleet."

"What kind of groups?" Rugar wanted to know.

"Six of their Battlecruiser-squadrons, according to our databanks. Each consisting of two Questor-Class Star Battlecruisers and four Bellator-Class Star Destroyers."

"Bellator-Class?" Zaar wondered.

"Their largest destroyer-model. KDY-design. 2.2 kilometers long, minimal hangar-facilities, estimated linear acceleration 3,200g, estimated fuel-annihilation at maximum 600,000 tons per second. More a destroyer-killer, than a real destroyer."

"That is a lot of firepower in combination with those battlecruisers." Rugar turned to Zaar. "I think they use those squadrons as diversions by making quick attacks on our other systems. You don't use battlecruisers and destroyers for long sieges."

"They don't have enough firepower to harm our worlds, but they can still cause a lot of damage to our facilities in space, if we don't relieve those systems."

"That is what they expect us to do, but their timing is pathetic. Of course they might think we have our ships evenly spread over the entire cluster instead of concentrated in one place. Until ... ."

"Until this human Admiral doesn't intent to use those battlecruisers as diversion, but plans to backstab us." Zaar finished.

A grim smile appeared on Rugar's face. " We will see." he stated softly.


	3. Chapter 3

Here we go. Part Three. Hope you like and don't forget to comment. :)

Pride's Prize - Part III

"Exit from hyperspace in three seconds ... two ... one."

With a flicker of pseudomotion the large imperial fleet left the realm of hyperspace, more than three million kilometers away from Yrr-17 the planet farthest away from its sun. An irregular-shaped piece of rock with a maximum diameter of two thousand kilometers, escorted by fourteen small moons and hundreds of asteroids. All of it displayed as a hologram inside Teshik's Command and Information-Centre aboard the "Gamerrah".

After looking over the readings collected by the fleets scanners Martel Uther turned to Osvald Teshik. "There are massive artificial structures on the planet and its moons. Our information seems to be correct, the Yirrho have a ship-depot here." A moment later. "Starfighters are launching from inside the asteroid-field. They are followed by capital ships."

"Launch our own fighters to intercept them. What can you tell me about those capital ships?"

"We counted thirty-two. Eight of them destroyer-sized, the rest seem to be frigates."

"Destroyer-Squadrons Four and Six shall engage them." Teshik ordered. On their tactical hologram the Imperial Officers could see how twelve Star Destroyers and their frigates left the fleet and turned towards the defenders of Yrr-17.

"Why don't we attack with the entire fleet?" Uther asked. "We could be finished in five minutes and move on to the main world of the Yiirho."

"Patience, Commander. We don't know, where the main fleet of the enemy is and I don't want them to trap us in the gravity-well of Yrr-17." Admiral Teshik explained.

"You think this is a trap?" Martel Uther asked.

"Yes. And those brave fools of defenders are the bait."

"On the other side we have divided our fleet for the second time. If things continue this way we have no ships left, once we reach Yiirho."

Inside the hologram the fighters of the Yiirho and the GalacticEmpire met for their lethal dance.

---

- Mandator-Class Star Dreadnoughts - nine.

- Bellator-Class Star Destroyers - twenty-four.

- Imperator-Class Star Destroyers - hundred-twenty.

- Acclamator-Class Star Frigates - five-hundred-fourty.

- Evakmar-Military-Transports - eighty.

"How good that those Cruiser-Squadrons are elsewhere." commented Zaar after reading the identification of Imperial vessels inside the system. "Otherwise I would really start to worry."

"Keep your sarcasm to yourself." Rugar admonished his second-in-command. "Speaking of those Battlecruiser-squadrons, they have appeared at Fernus, Liira and Semtem, fired a few shots and disappeared again." That caused Zaar to become serious again.

"Any losses?" the Muun-Eleven asked concerned.

"A few automated freighters and a defense-station. No lifes lost so far."

"It won't stay this way." Zaar noted glumly. He pointed at the tactical hologram, that displayed the situation in the outer system. "At Yrr-17 the battle has already started."

---

One million kilometers outside the asteroid-field, that orbited Yrr-17 and its moons the Imperial TIE-fighters met their Yirrho-counterparts, fighters with an ovoid main body and three pylons, that ended in dagger-shaped heat-radiators. A laser-cannon emerged from the tip of each radiator and a pair of stronger ion-cannons from below the cockpit.

Soon the endless night was interrupted by hails of green and blue laser-fire, the flashes of exploding fighters and the occasional missile. It was here, that the Imperials faced their first bad surprise.

---

"The TIEs of destroyer-squadron Four and Six have engaged the enemy-fighters." reported the starfighter-coordinator of the "Gamerrah".

"How many hostile contacts?" Uther asked.

"Around thousand." came the answer.

"That is good." the Commander said to the Admiral. "The fighters from our destroyers outnumber them four to three."

"You might be overly optimistic." Osvald Teshik had transferred the data from the starfighter-coordinator directely to his datapad. "Take a look at those performance-evaluations. The Yirrho-fighters are as fast and agile as our TIEs and - contrary to them - they are shielded and armed with torpedos. Our fighters better get capital-ship-support as soon as possible."

Martel Uther shot a dark look at the datapad, cursed the superior technology of the Yirrho - which was without a doubt at work - in silence and ordered destroyer-squadrons four and six to hurry.

---

The capital ships of the Yirrho reached the battlefield first and for the first time the Imperials could get a good look at the major warships of their enemy. Looking like cog-wheels from the front the main bodies of the cylinder-shaped ships were five times as long as wide with six beams forming six trenches parallel to the keel-line, adding to their height and width. Dome-shaped turrets of heavy cannons emerged between those beams and elongated blisters covered parts of those trenches.

Point-defense-lasers and light turbolaser-cannons started to support the fighters of the Yirrho and forced the TIEs to turn back.

But not for long.

The arrival of the two destroyer-squadrons caused the battle to turn again. Each squadron consisted of one Bellator-Class and five Imperator-Class Star Destroyers (one of those five ISDs was modified to act as starfighter-carrier for eight wings of TIEs) and fifteen Acclamator-Class Star Frigates. The surviving TIEs re-grouped around their big warships and the capital ships of both factions started to fire at each other with their heavy weapons.

---

"Target-look on hostile cap-ships aquired, Admiral Bejan. Targets were designated HF-1 and HF-2."

"All firepower into our frontal batteries. Once those frigates are disabled we can take care of their destroyers." Vice-Admiral Bejan, Commanding Officer of the Empire's destroyer-squadron four ordered.

A slight tremble run through the bridge of the 2.2kilometers long Bellator-Class Star Destroyer "Avenger of Humbarine".

"What was that?" Bejan asked.

"Enemy-fire from HF-1. Shields are holding."

"Impudent non-humans. Show them whom they are dealing with."

"Yes Sir."

Like with all destroyer-designs build by KuatDriveYards the heavy weapon-turrets of the "Avenger of Humbarine" were aligned parallel to the dorsal superstructure. Contrary to the eight heavy turrets of an Imperator a Bellator-Class had twenty of those, sixteen for very heavy double-barrelled turbolasers. All the energy, that usually went through those guns in a broadside-fight was now directed through the two frontal turrets and the axial cannons on the dorsal side of the heavy destroyer. Basically the entire power produced by an ISD in one second slammed evenly divided into the shields of the two Yirrho-frigates.

"What the ... ." Vice-Admiral Bejan, who had expected the two frigates to be vaporized, didn't complete his curse, because HostileFrigate-1 and HostileFrigate-2 opened fire again. This time the trembling of the bridge was a lot stronger. And then the bow of the first Yirrho-destroyer appeared behind the two frigates, blue-white glowing. For a short second Bejan remembered the dreaded Munificent-Class Star Frigates of the IntergalacticBanking-Clan during the clone-war and their superheavy turbolasers. "All available power into forward ... ." the Vice-Admiral had wanted to say "shields", but then the world went white.

---


	4. Chapter 4

Little feedback and critical comments. Now is this a good sign or a bad one?

Pride's Prize - Chapter IV

"Kriff." the curse escaped Martel Uther's mouth at the sight of the destruction of the "Avenger of Humbarine".

"Tell our ships to watch out for the orientation of the Yirrho-ships, especially for prolongations of their center-line. They have to stay away from those points or the Yirrho will target them again." Teshik ordered.

"It takes time to accumulate enough power for such a shot." argued Uther. "Time the Yirrho no longer have."

---

The Commander was partially correct. Three Acclamators got destroyed and one of the Imperators heavily damaged in the opening salvo of the Yirrho, but after that the Imperials were able to stay out of the firing-arcs of the bow-lasers . The soldiers and officers aboard the cylindrical ships still tried to get the invaders into the reach of their super-heavy cannons, but with limited success.

From now on the battle would be fought with more conventional weapons.

---

"The firepower those ships can take is incredible." commented Uther when another ISD-broadside hit into the shields of a 1,500 meter long Yirrho-destroyer without visible effect.

"Their destroyers are almost fourty percent larger than our Imperators. And something about their cylindrical design is very suspicious."

"The demands of super-heavy bow-cannons and their recoil taking their toll and placing limits on the possible designs?" Uther suggested.

"Not only that. I'm thinking more in terms of redundandency." answered Teshik.

"Several smaller reactors spread over the entire ship, instead of a single powerful one?" Martel Uther said, realizing where his superior was heading. "Such systems are hardly uncommon. The Quarren and Mon Calamari do the same with their ship-designs."

"Not to the same extent as the Yirrho, if my suspicion is correct." Fleet-Admiral Teshik looked at the display of the battle, where the two Imperial destroyer-squadrons were making little progress against their opponents. In fact two additional Acclamator-Class Star Frigates had been destroyed.

But now the flagship of the second destroyer-squadron, the Bellator-Class destroyer "Defender of Tepasi" was engaged in a broadside-duel with one of the leading Yirrho-destroyers. Sixteen very heavy turbolaser-cannons in eight turrets and scores of medium and light turbolasers from every part of the surface of the more than two kilometer long dagger that was facing the 1,500 meter long cylinder were firing. A comparable number of light, medium and heavy cannons was firing back at the "Defender", while the remaining star destroyers and frigates of the Empire tried to form a protective screen for the flagship from the majority of the other Yirrho-ships.

"Tell Rear-Admiral Kaller to concentrate his fire on the midsection of that Yirrho-destroyer." ordered Teshik. "Lets see, what happens."

---

The broadside-duel between the Yirrho-destroyer and the "Defender of Tepasi" continued for almost another minute, causing Martel Uther aboard the "Gamerrah" to wonder, if Rear-Admiral Kaller had gotten his orders.

But then the "Defender" started to roll around her main axis, presenting her dorsal side in the process to the leading Yirrho-ship, firing with her port-side and dorsal cannons as long as possible. Then the starboard-cannons, that had been silent until now got into view of the 1,500 meter long cylinder. The capacitators of the eight double-barreled turbolaser-cannons had been powered up for almost a minute and now the entire accumulated energy was released in a single volley against a relativly small area. Several hundred petatons of destructive energy poured into the shields of the Yirrho-vessel, too much to resist. For a last moment they were holding, then ceased to exist and the "Defender of Tepasi", which had spent the fire of her heavy cannons for the moment started to target the now unprotected hull with its light and medium cannons, when something unexpected happened.

---

"It is breaking apart." Martel Uther cried out, surprise and disappointment audible in his voice. He had expected almost anything, but not that the ships of their opponents were that fragile. The Bellator-Class Star Destroyer in charge of Destroyer-squadron Six hadn't even really started to open fire with its lesser guns at the unprotected midsection of the Yirrho-ship.

"Oh no." explained a grim Osvald Teshik after a last confirming look at his sensor-displays. "This is happening on purpose."

On their screens the imperial officers had to witness how the Yirrho-destroyer seperated itself into five even-sized parts, which now really looked like cogwheels. Cogwheels threehundred meters high and wide, with the six trunks running parallel to the keelline adding another fourty meters on each side for a total width of threehundred-eighty meters.

Four of those sections were fully shielded and now activated their ion-drives, while the fifth, which had been at the centre and the target of the imperial salvo was drifting through space. Instead of fighting one target the "Defender of Tepasi" was suddenly facing four of them and that from different directions. However the Imperials didn't lost their nerves, using his heavy ion-cannons Admiral Kaller made sure, that the drifting section of the hostile destroyer stayed drifting and started to concentrate on the now smaller ships.

----

"Wrong, this is wrong." cursed an enraged Rugar, more than an lighthour away from the battle.

"But we're making good progress." Zaar dared to say.

"Yes, too good." The Muun-Twelve closed his eyes. "This way we are not able to lure those destroyer-squadrons into the reach of our heavy weapons of the Yrr-17 defense-perimeter. Their Admiral will have no choice, but to attack our bait with his main fleet."

"If we trap the entire imperial fleet between Yrr-17 and our main fleet or just those two squadrons, makes no difference, if you ask me."

"On the contrary. What do you think this Osvald Teshik will do when our main fleet shows up, if the Imperials have that much trouble with eight destroyers and two dozen frigates? Will he continue to fight or will he abort the battle, run to his emperor and return with enough re-inforcements to defeat us? Our entire plan is in danger."

"The codes Ivar has taken with him ... ."

"Work only for our cruisers. Which haven't shown up so far." Rugar slammed his fist against the desk.

"In that case I suggest we accelerate our plan." said Zaar. He turned to the Yirrho manning the com-station of the command-centre. "Tell the Muun-Thirty Kezetta to attack the Imperials with our main fleet." The Muun-Eleven ordered. Zaar exchanged a short look with his superior. "And tell him to power his systems down by thirty percent" he added with a sour face.

----

"At least now we know how to fight them most effectively." Martel Uther muttered after taking a look at the display, that showed their overall progress. The situation wasn't good for the two destroyer-squadrons. Five other Acclamators had been destroyed as well as another ISD. On the other side the Yirrho had only lost three of their frigates to the combined fire of two of the imperial destroyers.

"Alright, that is enough." stated Osvald Teshik as another unfortunate Imperator-Star Destroyer got into the firing-arc of one of the heavy bow-cannons of the Yiirho and got its bridge-tower vaporized. "Sent destroyer-squadrons five, seven and eight in and have them launch their bombers in addition to their TIE-fighters. We ... ."

Alarm-klaxons interrupted the flow of orders from Admiral Teshik.

On a nod from his superior Martel Uther activated his com. "Bridge, what is the reason for this alarm?"

"Commander, our scopes have detected a large number of Yiirho-ships coming from the inner system. We've counted more than eighty contacts and some of them are larger than their destroyers."


	5. Chapter 5

Pride's Prize - Part V

The hands of Kezetta, Muun-Thirty of the Yirrho-Fleet were turned into fists and the nails of his fingers tore into the palms of his hand. Through gritted teeth he had observed how clumsy the destroyer-squadrons of the humans had fought against the defenders of Yrr-17. Well, perhaps clumsy wasn't the right word. Overconfident might be a better term. Overconfident and subconsciously prejudiced. After all they had fought and won the greatest war of the last thousand years against a confederation of mercantile powers and probably had viewed the ultra-capitalist Yirrho as cut from the same cloth and as a second they were probably used to their Kuati-ships to be vastly superior to any kind of vessels serving the same purpose in a different Navy. Kezetta was sure that the Kuati, who prided themself as the ones who set the benchmark on powerful warships could learn a lot from the Yirrho. The thought caused a grim smile to appear on his face.

A smile that quickly vanished once he thought of the farce he was about to perform.

"Reduce power-output by thirty percent." the Muun-Thirty ordered. Remembering, that Rugar and Zaar were civilians and lacked the experience with military-hardware he had he added. "Correction, make that fifty percent." As much as he loathed the plan Kezetta would make sure that it succeeded.

"All five reactors?" his second-in-command asked.

"All reactors. The main reactors at the centre of our ship-modules and the reactors, that supply additional power to our shields and weapons in the trenches."

Having executed the order Kezetta's XO turned back to his superior. "I guess we also won't open fire on their heavy ships from here, if we power down our reactors?"

"And show the Empire, that you can combine a laserbeam with a hyperwave? No. We're not going to win this war by revealing what we're capable of."

---

"When will the main elements of the Yirrho be in weapons-reach?" Commander Uther demanded to know from his sensor-officers.

"Twenty minutes, if they keep up their current acceleration." was the answer.

"Until they make a micro-jump inside the system." Admiral Teshik muttered.

"A micro-jump inside a star-system is far to dangerous to execute. No sane military commander would try something like that." Uther argued.

"A collegue of mine, who is advocating for the Imperial Starfleet to adapt and further develop such tactics would disagree. But as a non-human his views on the risks of something like this might be different." Teshik mused.

Marthel Uther was at a loss for words. What should one expect from a non-human after all? He also didn't wanted to insult a superior officer, even in his absence, especially since he didn't knew, how close his own superior was to his "collegue". So he decided to shift the conversation back to the battle.

"As long as the Yirrho stay reasonable and don't make a jump we have twenty minutes to deal with their ships here."

"Yes, but if our additional squadrons don't make progress within the next five minutes, we'll have to sent in a Dreadnought-division. We can't afford to prolong this fight any longer."

---

But for the moment, there was no reason for the concerns of Fleet Admiral Osvald Teshik.

Three additional Bellator-Class Star Destroyers, fifteen Imperators and fourty-five Star Frigates turned the battle over Yrr-17 in favour of the Imperials. Seven of the Yirrho-destroyers were left, three of the modules from the destroyer the "Defender of Tepasi" had fought with and twenty of their seven-hundred-fifty meter long frigates.

Teaming up with the leading Bellator-Class Star Destroyer "Defender of Tepasi" the "Champion of Corulag" started to attack the Yirrho-destroyer designated HD-2, while the "Paladin of Kuat" and the "Herald of Anaxes" engaged a third of the 1,500 meter long cylinders. As an answer two of the remaining five Yirrho-destroyers moved in to support their brethren under pressure, while the remaining three tore into the formation of the Imperators. To protect their larger ships the Imperials used their frigates to cover the larger ships from individual bolts and parts of entire salvos, when the Acclamators weren't busy fighting the Yirrho-frigates.

And while all this was going on Yirrho-fighters, TIEs and - as ordered by Admiral Teshik - Imperial NTB-640-naval bombers were flying around.

Realizing, that with their current formation they couldn't outbalance the advantage the Imperials had with their frigates in numbers as well as different positions the Yirrho defending Yrr-17 decided to take a risk. Of the remaining twenty frigates twelve ships initiated the seperation of their individual modules, while the eight that had stayed in one piece hurried to the support of the destroyers, that were fighting the Imperators. Suddenly the seventy Acclamators, that were still participating in the battle were faced with sixty cogwheel-shaped objects with a main body hundred-fifty meters long and equally wide and fourty meters added by the beams, that ran parallel to the centre-line. From one moment to the other the imperial frigates were no longer able to protect their larger brethren from the laser-fire and missiles of the three Yirrho-destroyers. Together with the eight frigates, that hadn't seperated their modules this part of the battle was suddenly almost evenly matched.

At the fighter-front things looked different. At the beginning of the battle thousand-fourhundred-fourty TIE-fighters had been facing close to thousand Yirrho-fighters. When it had become necessary for the Imperials to sent three additional destroyer-squadrons into the battle, the total number of TIEs going to be employed had increased to three-thousand-three-hundred-sixty fighters. Since Teshik had also ordered the launch of bombers 612 NTB-640-naval bombers had joined the fight (it would have been 780 bombers, but the ships carrying the other 168 NTBs had been destroyed before the order to launch the bombers had come). For fighter-battles imperial planers and tacticians preferred to outnumber the enemy three to one, but that hadn't been the case in the initial phase of the battle over Yrr-17. There the relation had been only four to three in favour of the Imperials, so the TIEs had only a small advantage. Worse for them had been, that the fighters of the Yirrho were shielded and armed with missiles in addition to their laser-cannons, while still being as fast and manouverable as their imperial counterparts.

As a result and with the support of the point-defense-systems of their capital ships the Yirrho had shot down more fighters than the Empire. For each Yirrho-fighter destroyed, three or four TIEs had been vaporized, so both sides were almost equal in numbers, when the Imperials got re-enforced by the fighters of the destroyer-squadrons five, seven and eight. It probably wouldn't have changed the outcome, but it might have given the Yirrho more time for their main fleet to arrive, but with their fighter-force already reduced by twenty percent and now with additional two-thousand-sixteen TIE-fighters joining the battle the Yirrho-fighters were outnumbered almost four to one. Even worse was, that with those odds the naval bombers of the empire had more or less free reign. Coordinating their attacks three or four squadrons sneaked up on Yirrho-frigate-segments, that were already under fire from the Acclamators and delivered their payloads of heavy proton-torpedos.

Exchanging broadsides with HD-2 the "Defender of Tepasi" and the "Champion of Corulag" were also forced to keep the four remaining modules of the first Yirrho-destroyer at bay. Aware of the danger of another Yirrho-destroyer on its way to support its brethren the Imperials shot every joule available to them. They even risked overloading their reactors by increasing the maximum annihilation-rate of hypermatter by seven percent, more than the entire power-output of a Star Destroyer of the Venator-Class. And while finally the combined fire of the two Bellators brought the shields of HD-2 down, the need to fight two very aggressive destroyer-modules distracted the gunners of the "Defender of Tepasi" long enough to allow the already doomed Yirrho-destroyer to take the "Champion of Corulag" with a last devastating salvo with him. This time only two of the five destroyer-segments got away intact from the ship. Meanwhile the "Defender" had managed to destroy the two ship-modules, that had harassed her and was now in basically the same situation she had been in, before the additional reinforcements had arrived.

The "Paladin of Kuat" and the "Herald of Anaxes" did better, since they had only to deal with one ship and not one ship and four destroyer-modules, but they were also aware of another incoming Yirrho-destroyer. The "Paladin" lost several heavy turbolaser-turrets and the "Herald" got her bow melted in the destruction of HD-3, but suffered no additional damage.

Meanwhile the savage fighting between the fifteen ISDs and the three Yirrho-destroyers and eight frigates continued without one side being able to get a deciding advantage. One Imperator had been lost, while the Yirrho had lost two frigates and the bow-segment of one of their destroyers had been obliterated. The commanders of the large warships on both sides were unaware, that their part of the battle would be decided elsewhere.

The use of bombers and their superior numbers of fighters finally started to pay of for the Imperials. Massively outnumbering the remaining Yirrho-fighters the TIEs were able to prevent their enemy-counterparts from harrassing the much larger and heavier naval bombers build by Incom. Those were therefor able to deliver their payloads against the frigate-modules that had been fighting the imperial Acclamators. Slow, but steadily they freed the ships built by RothanaHeavyEngineering from their opponents, what allowed them to return to the support of the remaining ISDs.

Like a large animal catching its breath the "Defender of Tepasi" moved through space, seemingly ignorant of the two destroyer-modules, that were firing salvo after salvo at her. But the two short cylinders were only wasting their energy, too powerful were the shields of the more than two kilometer long dagger for the weapons of the three-hundred meter long cogwheels. Each on their own would have been able to fight an Imperator, but a Star Destroyer of the Bellator-Class was as powerful as three of those. And for one reason or the other the Yirrho commanding the destroyer-modules didn't consider the possibility to wait and charge up their weapons. Persecuted by the two Yirrho-ships the huge dagger headed for a point, where its course and the course of its last large opponent would met. The men and women crewing the sensor-stations of the Bellator-Class Star Destroyer were especially closely monitoring the super-heavy bow-cannon of the Yirrho-destroyer. A flash of blue-white light detected by the hyperwave-sensors, milliseconds before the actual beam would hit, the almost automatic reaction by the helm to de-accelerate saved the ship. The Yirrho had aimed for the bridge and their weapons-blast impacted against the shields and managed to overload them - but it passed the physical structure of the bridge by a few meters. The sudden de-acceleration also caused the two destroyer-segments to pass the "Defender of Tepasi" and for a few moments they covered the Imperial Star Destroyer against the weapons of their larger brethren. Using the opportunity presented to him, Rear-Admiral Kaller ordered his gunners to open fire on the two smaller ships, destroying them with a few overpowered shots, knowing that the Yirrho-destroyer couldn't bring enough guns to bear with its bow against him and the large cannon there needing time to charge up again.

Kaller was partially correct, since the Yirrho aboard the 1.500 meter long ship attempted to re-align their vessel so that their broadside would face him. Turning his ship around the two opponents were soon engaged in a broadside-duel.


	6. Chapter 6

Pride's Prize - Part VI

Lieutenant Syat was the pilot of an imperial NTB-640. Now that the majority of the frigate-modules of the Yirrho was destroyed Syat's Vulcan-squadron had been ordered to assist the "Defender of Tepasi" in her fight against the Yirrho-destroyer. Accelerating towards the place, where the two large ships were fighting each other, the imperial pilots made last preperations for their attack-run. During the battle they had learned the hard way, that the sides of the Yirrho-ships were bristeling with point-defense-cannons, while at the bow and at the stern of the cylindrical ships the concentration of light cannons was lower.

"No surprise." Lieutenant Syat said to Lieutenant Demmings, his weapons-officer who was sitting behind him. "Of course we have to fly in front of those superheavy cannons or into the thruster-exhaust to evade the enemies point-defenses." Briefly he wondered, if the former position of the leading officer of Vulcan-Squadron as a TIE-pilot had something to do with Captain Dresks attack-plan. The shields of their bombers should be strong enough to resist the megaton-firepower of capital ship-point-defenses, but for the unshielded TIE-fighters, which escorted the bombers the situation was totally different.

TIEs had their speed and manouverability for their protection. But they couldn't exploit their speed-advantage as long as they had to escort the much slower bombers and manouverability had little place in an attack-dive.

Syat looked out at the "Defender of Tepasi" and the Yirrho-destroyer exchaning broadsides of heavy turbolaser-fire. Compared to the energies released with each shot in those salvos, fire from point-defense-cannons was insignificant. Insignificant, but still lethal for a fighter-craft. Or a bomber, if the enemy-gunners were good.

"Vulcans, ready for attack." came Captain Dresks voice over helmet-com. The gunners and pilots of the bombers adjusted their targeting-computers for a fight against a Yirrho-destroyer, using data collected earlier in the battle and extrapolating observations and sensor-readings made against smaller Yirrho-vessels onto a destroyer: weak spots, sensitive locations like weapons-placements, sensors and communications-equipment, areas of shield-interferences and so on. Aside from that each bomber got a number of special targets to attack. Finally the individual bombers sent their confirmation to their leading bomber.

"Vulcan-2, ready."

"Three, ready."

One after the other the pilots of Vulcan-squadron confirmed to be ready. Syat was the tenth to report.

"Vulcan-11, ready."

"Vulcan-12, ready."

"Confirmation, Vulcan-Squadron ready for attack." stated Dresk, who piloted Vulcan-1. "Squadrons Onyx, Saber and WhiteDeath are also in position. Execute."

From different angles the four squadrons of naval bombers started to accelerate towards the large cylinder of the enemy-warship with the Vulcans targeting the bow, Onyx-squadron heading for the stern and the other two squadrons attacking the dorsal and ventral side of the Yirrho-destroyer, that was facing away from the "Defender". And while the non-humans aboard the large warship were concentrating against the Bellator, they weren't ignorant of the danger coming from elsewhere. A hail of fire from point-defense-cannons erupted against the NTB-640s, forcing the pilots of the large bombers to twist their craft to the sides or put them into rotation, while their gunners, who controlled the offensive and defensive capabilities of the bombers put all available energy into the forward-shields.

The escorting TIE-fighters didn't have that luxury and despite all the twisting and manouvering they were able to perform the defense-fire of the Yirrho was accurate enough to pick a lot of them out of space. It wasn't a pretty sight, hit by petajoule strong laserblasts the unshielded fighters were almost always completely vaporized.

The small crew of Vulcan-10 tried to ignore the losses. Those were part of the business and if the men piloting the TIEs shouldn't have died in vain, they better concentrated on their job.

"Target-point aquired." informed Captain Dresk his pilots. Syat could hear Demmings shifting in his seat. "Transmitting telemetry." Unnatural silence seemed to fill the cockpit. "Transmission complete. Fire." Lieutenant Syat knew, that his weapons-officer would now press a button, which would cause the mass-drivers of the NTB-640 to unleach its lethal cargo.

"Lets get out of here." Demmings remarked dryly.

Already put on an impressive speed by the mass-drivers the launched missiles activated their own drive-system, adding their own impressive acceleration to the initial burst they had recieved. Their cold start allowed them to get away undetected from the bombers, that had delivered them and when the Yirrho manning the sensors and point-defense-stations of their target detected their presence they had already covered most of the distance and reached their attack-speed.

Twenty-four missiles, each armed with a warhead with enough destructice energy to completely obliterate a small town impacted against the shields of the Yirrho-destroyer in a single point. The micro-second it took them to detonate worked as force-multiplier and unlike a direct-energy-transfer-weapon their energy wasn't redirected by the shields or absorbed into the heat-sinks of the neutronium-cladded armor. Through the shields the impact was transmitted to the shield-projectors and their foundations inside the hull.

Immediately the fire on this side of the capital ship increased dramatically.

"Pull it up, pull it up." screamed Demmings.

That was something Syat didn't needed to be told twice. With full power directed to its engines the large bomber tried to get away from the Yirrho-destroyer. It barely succeded, but got hit by one of the petajoule-strong energy-blasts. For several seconds the NTB-640 tumbled through space until its pilot got it back under control.

"Blast, that was close." cursed Syat. "Can somebody tell me, what just happened?"

"Don't tell me you don't know the standard-reaction in case of a shield-failure." admonished Demmings, who had already calmed down. "You rotate ship and direct all available energy into your cannons and hope to hit the little critters before they manage to exploit the opening."

"I know the standard reaction." Syat bite back. "But have you seen the amount of fire the Yirrho were putting out? Not to mention the speed with what they re-directed their energy."

"The energy is easily available from the shield, but you're right about the speed." the weapons-officer admitted. "No organic being would be able to react that quickly and no kind of droid that i know."

The discussion between the pilot of Vulcan-10 and his weapons-officer was interrupted by their squadron-commander, who ordered them to get back in formation with the other bombers.

"As if we need extra orders to do that." Demmings complained.

"Maybe some kind of combat-predictor." speculated Syat. "A few lecturers at the academy were speculating about the possibility of developing such a device."

"You said it. Speculating, nothing more. We don't have such a device and the Yirrho don't have one, too."

"But their advanced technology ... ."

"Wouldn't matter. Some things are destined to stay science-fiction." Lieutenant Demmings stated convienced.

"But if it is not an artificial device ... ." the pilot continued.

"Don't." stated his comrade and friend. Both men were old enough to remember the clone-wars. "Such ideas only get you unwanted attention and visits from ... here we are."

In front of them the survivors of the four squadrons had assembled. A quick count by Syat revealed, that only thirty bombers of the original fourty-eight were left.

"Eighteen destroyed." the pilot muttered. He should have expected losses like that considering all he had seen and learned since the beginning of the battle, but Syat realized that all his experiences and training hadn't prepared him mentally for that. A bomber was a large, unmanouverable craft if compared to a fighter, but it was still too fast and agile for the heavy and massive weapons of a capital ship and its powerful shields should protect it against the firepower of the smaller cannons, that were able to target it.

"Could have been nineteen." Demmings stated. "In case you haven't noticed, they hit us with that last salvo. The last two of five shots. A third one would have killed us."

"Fortunately we were protected by shields."

"Enjoy them as long as ... ." the weapons-officer was interrupted by Captain Dresk, who ordered another attack-run, this time by all thirty bombers concentrating on one spot.

"I suggest you direct all available power into forward shields. Even those of the aft-shields." suggested Syat. "If we're concentrating our attack on one spot other parts of the Yirrho-destroyer aren't under pressure."

"And can afford to support the attacked section with power. We have seen what happens then during our last attack. Is Dresk crazy or what?"

"Crazy or not, he is our captain and we have to follow his orders." Syat accelerated the heavy NTB-640-bomber back to the Yirrho-destroyer. Several seconds passed. "A few moments prior you said "enjoy them". What did you mean by that?" the pilot asked.

"The shields." Demmings answered. "To improve standardisation of our fighter-wings, not to mention cost-efficency the good old NTB-640s are going to be phased out in favour of a new bomber. At least according to a friend of mine on Coruscant."

"How does this improve standardisation and why shall i say good-bye to shields?"

"Sometimes you're really slow Syat. Standardisation and cost-efficency."

"You mean ... ?"

"Yes, i mean."

"Kriff." Then. "They can't be serious about that. Bombers are no fighters. Each of us costs the empire a half million credits and with the losses to be expected ... ."

"Somebody made a similar calculation and came to a different result. With the galaxy largely under control campaigns like this will be a thing of the past and the majority of the starfleet will change from a combat-role to a pacification- and patrol-force. So no large battles, nobody able to challenge us and no heavy losses. Ergo no need for expansive and maintainance-heavy bombers."

"The implaccable logic of the accountants from our logistical branch." Syat commented. "Let me guess our future tin-cans delivered by SienarFleetSystems will not only be shieldless, but also a one-does-it-all design for planetary and naval bombardements."

"Very likely." Demmings agreed.

"Well, in that case ... WATCH OUT, hostiles from the side." the pilot cried out. Their bomber passed the crossing-point with the course of the Yirrho-fighters, which quickly turned around to follow them. Syat pulled their bomber through a number of erratic manouvers without abandoning the general direction towards their target. The Lieutenant (and his superiors agreed on that) considered himself to be an excellent pilot, able to fly combat-missions half-asleep or making conversation with his weapons-officer, while executing a coordinated attack and being persecuted by enemy-fighters.

"No energy for rear-shields with that capital-ship-fire." his weapons-officer stated. "I'll try to keep them at a distance with our tail-cannon. Low-powered shots, that won't hurt, but a lot of them."

"Bombers, stay on course. Help is on the way." Captain Dresk used the moment to announce, that he was still with them.

"How comforting." Syat muttered. "Demmings, how long until we can deliver our torpedos?"

"Just a few seconds more." to the side they could see another bomber of their squadron exploding. "Blast, i can't keep them away. If they get any closer, i HAVE to redirect energy to the rear-shields."

"Not an option." muttered Syat. In front of them the cylinder-shape of the Yirrho-destroyer became larger and larger. Needle-thin lines of laser-fire turned into wide beams and small dots of explosions grew into lethal flowers of fire and light. The huge ship of the non-humans was turning its bow towards the "Defender of Tepasi", trying to get the imperial destroyer-killer before its super-heavy bow-cannons and at the same time reducing the surface facing the dagger-shaped ship.

The bomber-pilot realized, what the Yirrho intended. With the need to shield a much smaller surface against the weapons-fire of the "Defender" they got more energy for their side-shields and point-defense-cannons, what would make it more difficult for the imperial bombers. But it also meant, that the Yirrho were taking them seriously, Syat thought with a grim smile. Suddenly the growing wall of point-defense-fire in front of him lost its terror. And when his tactical computer announced the presence of the Imperial TIE-fighters with a screaming sound he almost cheered.

"Our fighters are here." Demmings had a talent to state the obvious. The weapons-officer turned back to the controls of their missile-launchers, but kept an eye on the events behind them. "Launching torpedos in ten seconds."

Looking at the screen, that displayed their rear Lieutenant Demmings realized, that the TIEs had managed to draw two of the three enemy-fighters away, but one Yirrho was still behind them. He set their rear-cannon on autofire.

"Six, five ... ." Demmings couldn't say four, because a flash appeared on the screen. "Incoming missile. Launching torpedos now. Syat, get us out of here."

While the NTB-640 accelerated upwards, the two heavy torpedos were launched three seconds too early. Not a lot of time, but for the point-defense-cannons of the Yirrho it was enough to track and shoot them down, while the bomber of Syat and Demmings tried to get away from the fire of the Yirrho-destroyer and the missile behind them.

"Demmings, have we shaken that missile off?" Dresk is going to kill us. Syat thought. It was a small consolation, that the rest of the imperial bombers had obviously been able to launch their torpedos at the right point of time. Below them the Yirrho-destroyer was engulfed in a quick expanding ball and the fire of its point-defense-cannons dropped down considerably.

"Negative, it is still on our tail. Directing energy into rear-shields. Brace for impact."

Realizing it was impossible to escape the Yirrho-torpedo Syat closed his eyes and prepared for the inevitable. The missile hit and the large bomber was shaken through. Tumbling through space Syat dared to open his eyes once the shaking subsided.

"We're still here." he said.

"Obviously." commented Demmings with a small laugh. "How is our status?"

"Helm and thrusters are down. What about weapons?"

"Lasers are off-line and shields are down. Sensors ... ." Demmings hesitated. "There is another missile incoming."

The NTB-640-bomber of Vulcan-squadron with the call-sign "Vulcan-Ten" vanished in an explosion.

Its pilot, Lieutenant Syat, and its weapons-officer, Lieutenant Demmings were dead, before they could witness how the Yirrho-destroyer they had tried to attack rotated around his axis to get his now shield-less side away from the remaining imperial fighters and bombers. They were also unable to see how the "Herald of Anaxes" came to the support of the "Defender of Tepasi".

---

It had been the approach of the second Bellator-Class Star Destroyer, that had forced the Yirrho to end their fight against the "Defender" quickly, but fate wasn't on their side this day. Working together the two Imperial Star Destroyers managed to destroy the Yirrho-warship completely and then they moved towards the ISDs and Acclamators, that were still fighting their opponents. The "Paladin of Kuat" was already there and together the Imperial warships had little difficulties to take out the remaining Yirrho-vessels.

Within five minutes it was all over.


	7. Chapter 7

Grayangle:

Thank you for your kind reply. This chapter and the coming epilogue should answer your questions, but to make it short, the Yirrho-leadership (embodied by Zaar and Rugar) tries to get out of a trap circumstances have put them in. Basically they're trying to trick their own population as well as the empire (that is the trap-part), while at the same time conspiring with the empire, which wants a large and bloody battle. The Yirrho are strong enough to take out the Imperial Leadership and by this win the war with one stroke, but that is not in their long-time interests.

Pride's Prize - Part VII

"Horrible." muttered Martel Uther, looking at the losses they had suffered with thirty star destroyers and seventy-five frigates against thirty enemy-ships. In the final phase of the battle the Yirrho had destroyed another three Imperators and only twenty-six of the frigates were left.

"Our losses or those of the Yirrho?" Admiral Teshik wanted to know.

"Both, Sir. That they didn't surrender ... ."

"You are right, they didn't surrender. So it is not us to blame, Commander. It is not our fault, that they declined the generosity of the emperor." Osvald Teshik took a deep breath and Uther realized, that the Admiral was angry. More angry, than he had ever seen him. But somehow it seemed as if Teshik wasn't angry at him or the Yirrho, but at an enemy he couldn't put his hands on.

Osvald Teshik took a deep breath and seemed to calm down.

"This isn't over, Commander. We still have to deal with the main fleet of the enemy. Call Kaller back and tell him to get his ships into position at our rear. Lets give him time to refuel and re-arm his fighters and bombers. All other ships prepare for battle. Fighters and bombers are to be launched. Send the signal to our battlecruisers.

And i think it is time, that our guests join us."

---

"Forward elements of Kazeeta's fleet have made contact with the enemy, August One."

"Thank you, Ighat." Rugar answered the communications-officer of his command-post. "Do we know what happened to those battlecruiser-squadrons?"

"No, they didn't appear on our scanners or in any of our systems for the last twenty minutes. I could initiate a more thorough search for them, but ... ."

"Don't. No need to waste your energy." Rugar turned to Zaar. "It seems i was right about the purpose of those battlecruisers."

"Shall we warn Kazetta?"

"No. Things are already difficult enough. I only hope Ivar doesn't fail in his task."

"He is young and capable. Otherwise i wouldn't have picked him."

"The young are also idealistic. Ivar wasn't very enthusiastic, when he left for his mission. What if he has an attack of conscience?"

Silence filled the space between the two powerful Yiirho.

"He won't fail me. He never has." Zaar finally answered.

---

With a stony expression he observed the fighting between the Yirrho-defenders of Yrr-17 and the elements of the imperial fleet. When he had been a child he and his friends had used their toys of starships and fighters to play space-battles. As a youth his education had included basic military training, where he had been able to simulate battles of the past or develop his own strategical and tactical scenarios. Now he was watching a real battle and he wondered, where the exitement had gone.

Maybe there was no place for exitement, when the lives and well-being of countless beings rested on ones shoulders, not to mention the advances his career would make. He was doing the right thing.

So why didn't he feel good?

He looked out to the stars and to the ships fighting each other and he tried to imagine all the men serving aboard them. How many humans were aboard those ships, how many Yirrho all of them fighting for their lives. How many had already died? A few hundred-thousand? A few millions? And for what? For what were the humans dying? To increase the domain of an emperor by a few hundred worlds? Worlds the man would probably never set his foot on? To have the kilogram hypermatter a few credits cheaper? What a waste.

And the Yirrho. What were they fighting for? The possibility to make more credits? Their freedom? If so, what was he doing here? Wasn't he stabbing those brave fools in the back by being here? And were they fools at all?

He shook his head. When Zaar had come to him and told him, what he wanted him to do, it had sounded so plausible, so convincing. It had been nothing more than an equatation, an intellectual problem.

"The empire" Zaar had said. "The empire controls almost the entire galaxy. Millions of worlds, billions of resource-systems, quintillions of people. We might be able to win a few battles, but we are not able to win a war against them."

"Our technology is superior to theirs." he had argued.

"What makes us an even more tempting prize." the Muun-Eleven had answered. "Unfortunately Rugar is convinced of the invincibility of our fleet and our weapons and the majority of our people thinks the same way."

"You didn't do much to convince them otherwise." he had stated.

"And have Rugar remove me from my position? The only place from where i could influence things?" Zaar shook his head. "No. If we want our people to survive we have to ally ourself with the empire, not fight it."

"What do you have in mind?" he had asked and Zaar had told him.

"That is treason." he had said, when the older Yiirho was finished.

"Treason is only recognizing the signs of time." Zaar had said. Something the eighty percent of Yirrho, who had voted to fight the empire hadn't been able to do. Or so he had believed then.

But what if Zaar was wrong?

What if Rugar and not Zaar was right and the Yirrho were able to keep the empire out of their cluster? Would he be the one whose actions would decide the fate of the Yirrho and their worlds?

If Zaar's plan failed and the Yirrho won he would be exiled or die as a traitor. If Zaar's plan succeeded and the empire won, he would still be a traitor. Alive and his career intact, but still a traitor. If he did nothing the Yirrho would win today and he would die aboard this ship and the empire might conquer his people at a later date or perhaps never. The question was, could he do it? Sacrifice himself for this small chance of his people's freedom?

"I can't do it." he thought. "I won't become a traitor."

Behind him he could feel a human presence.

"Lord Ivar, Admiral Teshik is expecting our presence in his command-room."

Ivar, a Muun-Nine of the Yirrho turned away from the observation-window and to the Imperial Advisor, who had accompanied him from Coruscant.

"I'm coming." he said aloud. "I won't betray my people. The imperials will kill me, but i won't become a traitor." he thought.

---

"Identified hostile contacts: Fourty-eight frigates, twenty-four destroyers and eight vessels, that appear to be cruisers of some kind."

"What can you tell us about those cruisers?" Osvald Teshik asked.

"They're four-thousand-five-hundred meters long and without the side-beams nine-hundred meters wide. They don't seem to have problems to keep up with the lighter elements of their fleet."

"Blast." cursed Marthel Uther, who had done some quick calculations. "They're twenty-seven times as large as their destroyers. Assuming a linear increase in power those cruisers are more than twice as powerful as our Star Dreadnoughts."

"If that is true and if they segment their vessels we'll only have an advantage in the higher number of our frigates." Teshik muttered grimly.

"You don't have to worry about those cruisers." came a voice from the entrance to the command-centre.

Marthel Uther turned around and almost gasped in shock at the sight of the three men, who had entered the large chamber. Two of them were humans, one dressed in the richly ornamented robes and head-set worn at the imperial court, while the other wore an elegant and expansive looking business-suit. The third male, who was also the speaker was a Yirrho.

Even Marthel Uther, who wasn't very familiar with the species could tell, that he was a young one. "And you are?" he asked.

"Commander, allow me to introduce you to the Imperial Advisor Sim Aloo, representing His Imperial Majesty, Lord Romodi-Tagge, second-cousin to Baron Orman Tagge and representing TaggeCorporation and Lord Ivar, Muun-Nine of the Yirrho." Teshik explained with a small, polite bow to the advisor, while still having an eye on the tactical display.

"My pleasure." Uther stated confused. So those three were the visitors from Coruscant.

"You're obviously confused about our presence." Sim Aloo noted. Marthel Uther recognized the supercilious attitude of the advisor and deceided, that he didn't like this man.

"Considering our current state of hostilities with the Yirrho, the presence of Lord Ivar is indeed surprising." the commander admitted.

"Hostilities a considerable margin of the Yirrho-leadership would have liked to prevent." Ivar explained. "I'm the ambassador to Coruscant of this faction."

"But the Muun-Twelve Rugar told us, that eighty percent of your people are against the presence of the empire." Uther argued.

"Where did i say Yirrho-population?" Ivar asked. "I'm representing those of our leaders, who advocate a peaceful and friendly relationsship with the empire. And your convincing victory in this battle will convince the common Muun, that we were right from the beginning."

"Achiving victory in this battle looks questionable enough at the moment. Not to mention a convincing victory." A knowing smile appeared on Teshik's face and he turned to the com-station. "Full stop for the fleet. Destroyer-squadrons thirteen to seventeen shall cover our port-flankes. Be ready for a MargSable, Quel-Droma-Variant." He turned back to the group of civilians and his Chief-of-Staff. "That should keep them out of the firing-arcs of the heavy Yirrho-cannons."

"I can understand the presence of Advisor Aloo as ambassador of the empire, but what is the Lord Romodi-Tagge doing here?" Uther asked, having forgotten the on-going battle for a moment. After all, how often could a low Commander - actually Captain, but demoted in the name of protocol - observe the making of high galactic policy from close by?

"Isn't that obvious?" Ivar answered. "The House of Tagge or, to be more precise, TaggeCo. will become the main distributor for Yirrho-goods and Yirrho-hypermatter sold on the civilian market of the galaxy. They will also represent one of our two seats as voting sponsors of the CorporateSectorAuthority, while a proxy of His Imperial Majesty will represent the other one. Aside from the hypermatter, the annual dividend of that investment will pay our tribute as a client-state to the empire."

"You can afford two seats at the CSA?" Uther asked in awe. "I wasn't aware the Yirrho-worlds were such an economic powerhouse."

"Everybody tries as much as he can." The young Yirrho answered. "A regular tribute on our domestic income would have been trice as high, but i don't have to tell you that." Ivar thought dryly. Looking for a way to turn the conversation away from the fortunes of the Yirrho he was grateful, when the Commander remembered, that there was still a battle going on.

"You said we shouldn't worry about those large cruisers. The question is, why?"

"They belong to an older generation of vessels. When there was no use for them for the last hundred years we removed a number of reactors, fuel-silos and missile-magazines and turned those spaces into storage-rooms, training-facilities for our junior officers or quaters and equipment-depots for ground-troops. We're not an aggressive species and so we are not interested in the conquest and occupation of alien worlds ... ." Did Uther notice a hint of contempt in the Yirrho's voice? " ... and have no need for real troop-transports. However when the "Confederacy of Independent Systems" attacked us many of our destroyers and frigates were destroyed and had to be rebuilt. It should be obvious, that we would put our most modern technologies into them."

"But not into those four-point-five kilometer long monstrosities?" the Commander tried to confirm.

"Interesting choice of words from a man serving aboard a seven mile long warship, but that is exactly what i was trying to tell you. I assure you in the worst case each of those "Cuirasses" is as powerful as your Dreadnought, but nothing more." Ivar lied.

"We will see." Teshik stated with calm in his voice.

The Muun-Nine watched the Admiral closely. Sim Aloo and Romodi-Tagge might be blinded by the prospect of future profits gained from the Yirrho, but Osvald Teshik was a professional soldier, who was rumored to care for his men. Ivar's assurances were an attempt to bolster the confidance of the humans, causing them to become careless and lure them before the cannons of his people. Zaar's moral bancruptcy would soon get company by the political and financal fall of the Muun-Eleven. Lost in his thoughts he didn't hear, what Teshik was saying next.

"Even if those ships are as powerful as we initially assumed, they won't be a danger to us. Or to our victory or so i've been told. Isn't that the case, Lord Ivar?"

"What?" Ivar managed to say, needing a few moments to guess the answer expected from him. "Oh, yes. Your victory is assured. I'll make sure of that." "Dream on, human." he thought.

Mentally Ivar, Muun-Nine of the Yiirho, was already preparing himself for death. If by the weapons of his own people or by the hand of the imperials, if he refused to give them, what they wanted didn't matter. Interestingly the thought didn't bother him. Instead he felt a peace of mind he hadn't known for a long time.

He felt clean.

---

"It seems this human Admiral isn't as clumsy as i thought." The Muun-Thirty Kazetta stated with dry humor in his voice.

"We can attack his Dreadnought-division port-side and then the six Mandators at the center will attack our flankes, while the Destroyer-squadrons will try to get into our rear. If we attack the center we get three Star Dreadnoughts at our flankes port-side and the destroyers on the other. If we go for the destroyers, we have six Mandators in our side and three in our rear, not to mention their escorts." Kazetta's second-in-command mused.

"You're forgetting those six Battlecruiser-squadrons." Kazetta reminded.

"True, but aren't we supposed to be ignorant of them?"

"Yes. Alright, what would a Muun-Thirty do in such a situation, if he doesn't know, that his opponent wants to get a number of battlecruisers into his rear? One of those arrogant non-humans, who thought they can resist the might of the GalacticEmpire?"

"He would go straight for the enemies most important vessels."

"Right, but every Twenty-One could make such an approach. Lets make this slightly different. We sent Cuirass Six against the Destroyer-Squadrons, the rest of us attacks the lone Dreadnought-division. The enemy will either have to sacrifice his destroyers or divide his Mandators at the centre."

"This approach brings us very close to Yrr-17's gravity-well. We won't be able to manouver much, when those battlecruisers ... ah, i see what you have in mind."

---

"Interesting move on the side of our opponent, don't you think, gentlemen?" Admiral Teshik asked.

"I'm no expert on military matters, but even i can tell, that he is trying to even the odds by attempting to take out our lone Dreadnought-division first." Sim Aloo admitted. "By doing that he is also coming very close to the gravity-well of the planet and risks getting trapped."

"The enemy" - Romodi-Tagge was decent enough to give Ivar an apologetic look - "is also forcing us to decide, if we seperate our main force or sacrifice our destroyer-squadrons at our port-side."

"We won't divide our main force. I'll permit our destroyers to retreat, should the situation become critical." Osvald Teshik stated.

Sim Aloo stared at Teshik. "Their retreat and their survival would be contrary to the orders and intentions of the emperor." The small advisor hissed.

Marthel Uther stared at the robed figure in shock. He couldn't have understood that last statement right. The emperor was willing to sacrifice more than thirty star destroyers and their escorts, not to mention their crews? Sim Aloo must have gotten something totally wrong since it was impossible, that the benevolent sovereign of the empire would do something like that.

Or would he? The emperor was an old man after all, whose health hadn't been the best even in the waning days of the Old Republic. Palpatine was said to be isolated by his court and the running of the empire delegated to figures like Sim Aloo, Sate Pestage or Darth Vader. Did Palpatine even know, what was going on here, several thousand lightyears away from Coruscant? Marthel Uther remembered the warning Osvald Teshik had given him at the beginning of the battle, that things were changing and so he kept his mouth closed for the moment instead of telling Sim Aloo what he thought of him.

"The losses we suffered so far should be enough to convince the Imperial Senate, that the military build-up in numbers as well as more powerful warships must be continued, if the Imperial Forces shall be able to keep the peace." Osvald Teshik argued.

"Losses, that will be quickly forgotten with our "convincing" victory." Sim Aloo shot back.

"Convincing for my people." Ivar stated. "Your people will know, that you owe this "convincing" victory to treason on my part and not your superiority in numbers or hardware."

The Muun-Nine knew, that as a Yirrho loyal to his world he should hope for the destruction of as many imperial ships as possible, but the disregard of the imperial leadership for the lives of its soldiers sickened him.

"I'm in command of this fleet." Osvald Teshik stated grimly towards Sim Aloo, who involuntarily took a step back. "And i won't sacrifice more of my men than absolutely necessary."

"If you fail the emperor will hold you responsible."Sim Aloo said, his voice dangerously low. "And i won't forget it, too."

---

Seven of the eight large Yiirho-cruisers were closing in on the three Star Dreadnoughts. Heavy cannons started to exchange volleys of turbolaser-shots setting the darkness of space alight, while swarms of missiles were launched from their tubes. Mirroring the behavior of their larger brethren destroyers and frigates on both sides were exchanging fire with each other, when they weren't trying to support their larger ships and thousands of nimble starfighters, organized in pairs, chains, squadrons and entire wings were adding their by comparison insignificant firepower to the fight.

Concentrating full broadsides of their heavy turrets and occasional shots from their bow-cannons the Yirrho-cruisers were obliterating one star destroyer of the three Mandators escort after the other, while their destroyer- and frigate-escorts dealt with the imperial Acclamators. With a fuel-consumption of ten-thousand tons of hypermatter every second, those combat-versions of the assault-transport from the clone-wars were powerful enough to match most destroyer-designs, but it wasn't enough to survive against the Yiirho. Of course the spacers aboard the Star Dreadnoughts didn't ignore what happened to their smaller ships and they were harrassing the large enemy-ships with all available firepower, but they were three against seven equally powerful vessels. Hundreds of petatons worth of destructive energy was slamming into the shields of the four-thousand-five-hundred meter long cylinders without having much of an effect.

Every future space-war-officer learned in his first grade, that the shields of a warship were able to resist the fire of an opponent of comparable power for several minutes before the first shield-generators started to go down. The more shield-generators a vessel had in reserve to which it could distribute its shield-energy, the longer it was able to last until the shields were battered down. The other possibility was, that it was hit by enough energy to overload the entire shield at once.

The smaller imperial ships got their shields overloaded by the much larger Yirrho-vessels. The imperial Star Dreadnoughts tried to batter the shields of the Yirrho-cruisers down, but while those were of comparable power (AFTER the order to run their reactors on fifty percent by the Muun-Thirty Kazetta), they enjoyed the advantage of more shield-generators, what caused the imperials to make only little progresses. Realizing that he couldn't distract the heavy Yirrho-ships from destroying his escorts by dividing his fire over all of them the Vize-Admiral in charge of the Dreadnought-division ordered his three Mandators to concentrate their fire on a single enemy, what would give the other six cylinder-shaped vessels free reign against the star destroyers and frigates.

Rotating around its axis the targeted Yirrho-cruiser presented a fresh shield against the concentrated fire of the imperial battleships. At the same time it started to accelerate away from the battle accidently heading towards the six Mandators of Admiral Teshik's core-force which hurried towards their support, what caused the imperials to let it go and to concentrate their fire on another Yirrho-cruiser. But by now the alien commander decided, that he had bloodied the imperial escorts enough and that it was time to take care of the major imperial warships. With six Cuirasses against three Mandators four of the cylinder-shaped ships concentrated their fire on the leading Star Dreadnought of the division, while the other two occupied the remaining Kuati-battleships. It hadn't been necessary for the Yirrho-cruiser to spent all their available firepower against the Bellators and Imperators of the empire, so the additional energy had been stored inside the ships capacitators and was now released through the weapons-turrets. Weapons-energy built up over minutes was used up in seconds and when the blinding light was gone the Star Dreadnought "Colossus" had ceased to exist together with its two-hundred-thousand men strong crew.

---

"Kriff." cursed Marthel Uther. "That was the "Colossus". And now the "Voidwolf" is under pressure."

"That should satisfy those, who want a further increase of the military-budget." Osvald Teshik stated grim.

"Why don't you open fire with the cannons of your ships, Admiral. The enemy-ships are in reach of our turbolasers." Sim Aloo almost screamed. The destruction of a seven-mile long Star Dreadnought had shocked the Imperial Advisor, who suddenly remembered that he could very well be among those losses the GalacticEmpire was willing to take. As long as it were ships destroyed and anonymous soldiers the members of the Imperial Court wouldn't care very much, but if one of their own would be forced to breath vacuum ...

"Kazetta is using your own ships as cover against your guns." Ivar explained. "However one Cuirass is heading towards us and i wouldn't be surprised if its commander is charging up its heavy bow-cannon."

Romodi-Tagge licked his lips. "Perhaps now would be a good moment to fullfill your part of our agreement."

"Perhaps." Ivar threw Osvald Teshik a questioning look. "Admiral?"

"Too soon." Fleet Admiral Teshik activated his comm. "All ships concentrate fire against the approaching enemy-cruiser. Be ready for evasive manouvers the moment his superheavy cannon is about to fire. Don't wait for my orders."

---

The six imperial Star Dreadnoughts had to re-align their formation to be able to bring the majority of their weapons against the single enemy-ship into position, but once they were in place more than ten-thousand weapons-barrels opened fire. The shields of the large cylinder weren't able to survive against so much firepower for more than a minute and its captain knew it.

Turning his vessel's bow towards the formation of imperial ships he reduced the surface facing the Mandator's, his forward shields and the main weapon recieving all the energy. An artificial sun seemed to be born, where shields and turbolaser-blasts met and still the shields were holding.

But now the imperial destroyers and frigates protecting Osvald Teshik's Dreadnoughts realized, that the sides and the rear of the lone Yirrho-Cruiser were almost unprotected and were trying to concentrate their fire against those now weak spots. Missiles and laserblasts impacted against the shields and the armor of the four-thousand-five-hundred meter long cylinder, finally piercing the protective shells and shaking the large ship through. Vaporized metal, atmosphere and crew-members were vented into space. Flames erupted from the hull and died down the moment they run out of oxygen. Finally the bow-shield was about to collapse, but the Yirrho left a parting gift. Their bow-cannon fired mere nano-seconds before their shield went down and the turbolaser-fire from the imperial cannons turned them into atoms. The weapons-energy of their ship's reactors running at full power for more than a minute accumulated into a single weapons-beam and released at once was enough to overcome the shields of the Mandator "Conqueror".

The Star Dreadnought might have survived since in their hurry to take something with them the Yirrho hadn't taken a clear-target look. With the need to manouver in position and the static created by weapons-fire and shields they would have only hit the bow of the "Conqueror", but with the order to get away the men aboard the imperial warship had initiated a sudden acceleration once they discovered the Yirrho were about to fire. As a consequence the imperials were hit at the centre of their ship, with the super-strong laserbeam piercing through the armoured hull right into the reactor-bulb. For a moment time seemed to stand still with the laserblast moving on through the superstructure, but then the seven mile long Mandator was ripped apart in a titanic explosion.

----

"Tax-increase." cursed Zaar inside the command-centre of the Yirrho at the sight of another imperial Star Dreadnought destroyed. "If things continue like that we will still win and then it was all for naught."

"Not necessarily. A Bellator decided to sacrifice himself and rammed one of our Cuirasses, bringing the shields down long enough for the re-maining Mandator to destroy it." Rugar explained.

"So it is now six against five."

"Actually six against six, if we count the Cuirass chasing those destroyer-squadrons. Ups, five against five. I think its time for this Osvald Teshik to bring his battlecruisers to the party."

"And for Ivar to do his part." Zaar stated.

"Yes, that too."

---

"All power to forward guns, concentrate fire on the lead cruiser. On my mark." Osvald Teshik stated calmly.

"Get us out of here, Admiral." Sim Aloo hissed. "I'll take the responsibility, but get us out of here."

"Just because the odds are suddenly even doesn't mean we have reason to abandon the battle."

"Even? Have you gone mad? We have lost four of our most powerful battleships and scores of destroyers and frigates and you're trying to tell me, that the odds are even?"

"Wasn't that what you wanted? Enough losses to support your agenda?" The Fleet Admiral glared at the cowering advisor, leaving no doubt what he thought of the man. "Don't worry, you have nothing to fear." He turned to Ivar. "Isn't that right, Lord Ivar?"

The Muun-Nine stared at the human admiral, knowing full well what was expected of him. His compatriots had hurt the imperials, had hurt them a lot, but not as much as they should have been able to. A look at some of the sensor-readings had increased his suspicions. The Cuirasses were fighting with only half their power. He wouldn't have been surprised if Kazetta and a few other commanders were part of Zaar's conspiracy, but it was impossible that all Yirrho aboard the large battleships were traitors let alone suicidal enough to die with their ships, so what was going on? Did his people have technical problems or was he looking at the result of a long prepared act of sabotage? And what was he needed for, if that was the case? Ivar needed more time to sort things out, but Teshik was expecting an answer from him.

"You just have to give the order, Admiral." he said. He wouldn't become a traitor.

"Consider it given."

Ivar took a data-card out of his pocket and walked over to one of the comm-panels. He had to give his people more time. He would simply enter a number of wrong codes and when the humans realized, that he had duped them it would be to late for them.

"Commander Uther, inform our battlecruisers to join us, while our guest enteres his codes." Ivar heard Teshik order. "Recession. How could i forget about the battle-cruisers." the Muun-Nine thought. The Yirrho-fleet was doomed one way or the other. The only question was, if he would join them or not.

---

"August One, a number of imperial ships has appeared in the back of our forces at Yrr-17. They used the gravity-well of the planet to be pulled out of hyperspace. Sensor-readings identify them as the missing battlecruiser-squadrons."

"Took them long enough." Rugar grumbled. "Any longer and Kazetta would have achived victory despite being powered down."

"Yes, but it will soon be over." Zaar commented.

"You know what you have to do then?" Rugar asked his second-in-command.

"I do."

---

Twelve Questor-Class Star Battlecruisers and their escorts of twenty-four Bellator-Class Star Destroyers had left hyperspace in the back of the remaining Yirrho-fleet. Now trapped in the gravity-well of Yrr-17, with Osvald Teshik's Mandators on the one side, the planet on the other and the fresh imperials ships at their rear they were seriously outnumbered. With a Questor having three quaters of the firepower of a Mandator they were facing three to one odds, but they were still able to deal out a lot of hurt.

Until ... .

---

"Now, Lord Ivar."

His mouth a thin line and a single tear running down his cheek Ivar started the transmission. A number of encoded orders were leaving the antennas of the imperial flagship, carried by hyperwaves they covered the distances to the Yirrho-Cruirasses in a moments notice, were recieved by the antenna of the cylindrical vessels and ...

... caused their shields to shut down.

"All ships open fire."

---

"Sir, our shields are down and the imperials are opening fire on us."

"Return fire and try to get our shields up." Kazetta ordered. He knew it was a pointless order, looking at the wall of green fire coming closer and closer on his screens he was relieved, that finally he was able to leave this farce behind.

Then the world turned dark.

---

With stony expressions Rugar and Zaar watched the destruction of their fleet. Ten minutes after the imperial battlecruisers had dropped out of hyperspace the now superior forces of the GalacticEmpire had destroyed the last Cuirass, while the remaining few destroyers and frigates were hunted by the Questors and Bellators, while the main body of the ImperialFleet was on a course to the main world of the system.

"August One, we're recieving a message from Admiral Teshik." reported the Yirrho at the command-centre's comm-station.

"Everybody below the rank of Muun-Eight gets out. What comes now won't be pretty." Zaar barked. He gave a nod to Ighat at the comm-station. "You too, Ighat. Put him through and then go."

Looking at Rugar he saw the Muun-Twelve take a deep breath and straighten his shoulders.

"Now comes the last act of the play." he thought.

---

"Five Mandators, twenty-one Bellators, sixty-three Imperators and two-hundred-seventy Acclamators. More than five million men dead and we haven't counted all our fighter-losses. I hope it was worth it." Osvald Teshik grumbled towards Marthel Uther, while he waited for the connection with the Muun-Twelve Rugar.

Ivar was standing a few feet away, looking pale and withdrawn, while Romodi-Tagge and Sim Aloo had returned to their quaters to refresh themself or so they had claimed. Marthel Uther wouldn't be surprised, if they actually were in need of fresh underwear after the bloody and savage fighting they had witnessed. As far as he was concerned the Commander wanted to finish the business with the Yirrho and then leave the system, preferably forever. Even with their shields down, the Yirrho aboard the large cruisers hadn't surrendered.

The hologram of Rugar, Muun-Twelve of the Yirrho-worlds appeared.

"Admiral Teshik." the Yirrho greeted, his face a twisted mask of anger and hate.

"Lord Rugar." Osvald Teshik pronounced every syllable. "Your fleet is destroyed, your men are dead and it is time to end this useless conflict. Surrender now and you and your people will live."

"Never, you human filth." Rugar spat. "The Yirrho will never surrender. Never. I don't know how you defeated our invincible ships, but we will fight you to the last men, women and ... ."

A booming sound could be heard, Rugar's eyes went wide and he turned halfway around. A fist-sized hole had appeared in his upper torso. "You ... " he croaked, surprising the watching imperials with still being able to speak. "Traitor." A second boom accompanied Rugar's head exploding, involuntarily Marthel Uther and Osvald Teshik stepped back from the holographic blood and pieces of brain flying around, then Rugar's headless body dropped out of sight.

The holo-image of another Yirrho appeared, a large blaster-pistol still in his hand.

"Admiral Teshik?" he asked, his voice trembling.

"I'm here." the Admiral answered. "You must be Zaar."

"I am." the Muun-Eleven confirmed. "I'm sorry that you had to witness this horrible sight, i mean it was necessary. He was my friend and i had hoped, that he would see reason, but he wasn't himself anymore, i had to do it ... ." Zaar would have talked on, but Teshik interrupted him.

"You had to do, what was best for your people." he said, trying to keep his voice gentle, what wasn't an easy feat considering the losses his fleet had suffered. "Rugar wouldn't have stayed Muun-Twelve anyway, so perhaps it was for the better."

"You may be right, Admiral. I wish to thank you for your kind words." Zaar said, his voice finally steady.

"My pleasure." Teshik answered. "If you don't mind, but we have to discuss the allegiance of the Yirrho-Cluster to the Imperial State.

"What? Oh yes, we have." A weak smile appeared on the face of Zaar. "Very well. On behalf of the new government of the Yirrho i invite you and the representant of His Imperial Majesty to a personal meeting to discuss the last details and confirm our new allegiance to the Imperial State."

"As do i, Lord Zaar." Osvald Teshik answered politly.

"I'm looking forward to meet with you, Admiral. Welcome to the Yirrho-worlds."

"On the contrary Zaar, Muun-Twelve of the Yirrho. Welcome to the GalacticEmpire."

Next: The Epilogue.


	8. Chapter 8

Here is the last part of this 155kb-„short-story". I hope you liked „Pride's Prize" and recommend it to your friends. And if you ask nicely I'll add a small glossary for additional information – or you ask a direct question and I'll give you a direct answer.

Pride's Prize - Epilogue

"August One, the Muun-Ten Ivar wants to talk to you."

Zaar - now Muun-Twelve of the Yirrho-Worlds - put the datapad on his desk. Two weeks had passed since the arrival of the Imperials, the battle of Yrr-17 and the following drastic change of government for the Yirrho. Two weeks ago the Yirrho had gone from independant star nation to imperial client-state with all the priviledges and obligations such a status included. And while Osvald Teshik's fleet had already left the cluster, there was still an impressive imperial presence inside the system. The official version was, that they would stay until things had calmed down and the new government was secure in its position, but Zaar suspected that they had bloodied the Imperials a little to strong and now they wanted to keep an eye on things.

He would let them. A Mandator-division, four Battlecruiser-squadrons and a score of Star Destroyers in space didn't worry him. Same was true for the fourty army-corps spread over the system until one of Yrr-Prime's moons was transformed into a base for the Imperials. If there was reason for concern, it would originate among his own kind. The prospect of new profits now that the self-inflicted isolation had come to an end had helped to placate most of the civilian population and the military was too disciplined to insurrect. Not to mention, that the important figures of Yirrho-society were more or less all aware of Zaar's and Rugar's little sheme. What left only the young and idealistic hotheads to worry about.

People like Ivar.

"Sent him in."

The door to Zaar's private office opened and the young Yirrho, who had played such an important part stepped in. Both men spent a moment to look at each other and Zaar registered with shock the changes in the younger mans appearance.

The Muun-Ten had obviously lost weight. His once bright-green skin had changed to a sickly green-grey and the once golden eyes lay deep in their holes and had a reddish touch.

"August One." Ivar greeted. Zaar's sophisticated olfactory sensors were able to detect traces of alcohol from five meters away.

"Ivar, by Gumolltz Eye, are you alright? You look horrible. Please, have a seat."

"Lack of sleep, August One. And no, I prefer to stand." the younger Yirrho replied.

Zaar hesitated a moment. "As you wish." he finally said. He had a slight suspicion, where this was going. "So tell me, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"You could accept my resignation as part of your government, August One." Ivar responded.

"But why? You have shown yourself to be a valuable asset, despite your young age and lack of experience you have negotiated successfully with the GalacticEmpire, you didn't break down during the battle despite your difficult task and saved our worlds and our people from a violent occupation. You are a hero, Ivar, you've got promoted to Muun-Ten for your actions and you will achive even more. Why do you want to throw that away?"

"If betraying the legal ruler of our worlds, eighty percent of our citicens and dooming the crews of our fleet to death makes me a hero, I don't want to be one. You said I didn't break down during the battle, well I'm doing now. One million of our people are dead and they are dead because of me."

"No, they are not." Zaar responded harshly. "They are dead because the empire decided to invade our star-cluster and because Rugar and I developed a plan to turn a problem into an opportunity for the Yirrho."

"You and Rugar?" Ivar asked. "In case you have already forgotten, but you killed Rugar in cold blood. You might have deceived Osvald Teshik, but I have known you for longer."

"You're accussing me of murder?" Zaar's request for confirmation came in a dangerously cold and controlled voice.

"Yes. Yes, I think I do." Ivar answered.

"You foolish child. If you're willing to suspect me of murder, aren't you afraid I might also be willing to silence you to protect myself?"

"I don't care at the moment."

Realizing, that the young Yirrho was angry enough to not only resign from his position and sacrifice his career, but also shaken enough to spout nonsense that would have been suicidle under any other circumstances Zaar had to take drastic measures to reign the younger man in. For his own good and the good of the Yirrho.

"Lets have a walk." the Muun-Twelve said, raising from his seat and stepping to the door. Seeing the suspicious look Ivar gave him he made a small smile. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you."

It was slightly amusing for Zaar to see Ivar trying to stay behind him, although the display of distrust hurt. Well, hopefully not for long. Leaving the main-corridor, that connected Zaar's office with the computer-rooms and communications-centre, that formed the nerve-centre of the Yirrho-cluster they entered a narrow service-walkway and finally reached a heavy looking door.

"What you're going to see now stays between you and me, Ivar. Nobody is allowed to know about this. If the empire ever learns about this our days here are numbered. If you have to kill yourself to keep this secret, do it. Have I made myself clear?"

"You did." Ivar answered, his curiosity starting to replace his distrust and resentment towards Zaar. "If I'm convinced of the importance of this secret, I'll do everything to keep it. You have my word."

"Fine." Zaar said with a smile.

He opened the door.

Ivar looked through and turned to the older man, confusion evident in his expression.

"And?" he asked.

Behind the door was nothing. No secret chamber, no hidden room, just another part of the corridor.

"Look again." Zaar ordered.

Ivar obeyed and looked down the corridor again. It prolonged further than he could see, with no end in sight.

"A last layer of defense." Zaar explained. "Everybody who walks more than twenty meters from here, eager to get what's at the end of that walkway enters a space-loop. He will forever walk through the same corridor without ever reaching an end or being able to come back to the beginning. What is of interest to us is much closer. Step away from the door."

The Muun-Twelve touched a contact on his wrist-band and from one moment to the other the corridor behind the door vanished. In its place the frame of the door was filled with a black ... nothingness, that seemed to hypnotize the younger Yirrho.

"Is that what I think it is?" Ivar finally asked in awe.

"Of course. Or did you think the Gree are the only ones, who can develop hypergates? Come, what we came for is on the other side." Zaar stepped through the black vortex and after a moment of hesitation Ivar followed him.

Behind them the door closed.

---

It took a few moments for Ivar to get his orientation back. The fact, that the gravity was slightly different than what he was used too didn't help much.

"We're aboard a starship, aren't we?" he asked, standing on a platform inside a large dome-shaped structure. All around him space was visible through transparisteel-windows.

"Yes. Inside a chamber for an astrometric and observation department." Zaar replied.

Ivar knew, that out of tradition every Yirrho-ship had at least one chamber like this although they were no longer used, thanks to technological advances and a lack of need. For the Yirrho there was "nothing new under sun" as one of their poets had once claimed. The younger man also knew, that those chambers were usually positioned at the centre-line of a ship. Looking out for a bow or stern to get an idea about the kind of vessel he and Zaar were aboard off he discovered countless freight-containers, construction- and transportation-droids, shuttles, frigates, destroyers and cuirasses flying around. Ivar's eyes went wide, when he saw a vessel he identified as nine kilometer long Grand Cuirass lower itself down into one of the trenches of the vessel he was on. Sheltered in the the trenches of the larger ships were the smaller cylinders of destroyers. And it wasn't the only one. The young Yiirho counted twenty of what he had thought to be his people's largest warship from bow to stern in a single trench.

"What kind of ship is this, Zaar?" he asked with a hoarse voice.

"An intergalactic generation-ship. The flagship of a fleet of ten. The eighty-sixth fleet of this kind since Blotus the Hutt was President of the GalacticRepublic. The solution to our over-population problem and the reason why we can't fight the empire at the moment."

"What over-population-problem? I wasn't aware, that we have an over-population-problem." It was all to much for Ivar, too many new impressions, too many new concepts to digest.

"Sooner or later we would have one, with old man like me unwilling to die." shouted a familar voice from below.

"Lord Rugar? Is that you?"

"Who else. Zaar, get down and bring that young man with you."

---

Zaar and Ivar walked down the winding staircase until they reached the ground of the observation-chamber. Ivar, whose attention had been directed to the sky realized only now, that the ground was covered by natural soil, grass, bushes and even trees. Moving around a small group of bushes a small clearing came into view.

At the centre of the clearing stood an old-fashioned divan and on that divan sat Rugar. A young and physically incredible fit looking Rugar. The (former) Muun-Twelve wasn't alone. A half dozen, scantily clad females was clustered around him, massaging his shoulders, performing pedi- and manicure and serving him drinks. Ivar sniffed and discovered them to be biobots.

"I ..., I don't know what to say." Ivar stuttered. "I saw your head explode. You died in front of my eyes. And yet you're sitting here alive. And not only alive, but several decades younger. How is that possible?"

"Why is it, that you young people always have to ask about the "how" and "why"?" complained Rugar. Seeing Ivar's expression darken the older Yirrho realized, that the Muun-Ten was at the end of his patience. "Alright, alright, sit down."

When his two guests were seated and had gotten drinks of their own Rugar started.

"Around ten-thousand years ago - given or taken one or two centuries - our scientists discovered a way to transfer the consciousness of a living being into another body. Memories, intellect, life-essence, soul if such a thing exists, the whole package. In other words they had discovered the key to immortality. At the beginning only a few of the rich and priviledged got access to that technology, but soon it became wide-spread. And when large social unrest threatened to break out, because some of us had to die and others didn't immortality became available to everybody. The costs were astronomical, but in the long run a civil-war and a division of our society would have been more expansive. It seemed the problem was solved."

"But the solution to one problem, became the cause for another one." guessed Ivar, who had listened with fascination.

"Correct. From one moment to the other nobody died or stayed dead anymore. New Yirrho were constantly born, but none of the old vanished to make place for them. We were soon running out of space on the few homeworlds we had then and so we colonized more worlds. We even moved uninhabitable planets into new orbits and terraformed them, but that solution was only temporary. Further expansion outside of our cluster would have brought us into conflict with the GalacticRepublic, not to mention, that hordes of outsiders would have invaded our home, if they ever learned about our immortality." Rugar shook his shoulders. "The humans started to colonize the galaxy ten-thousands of years earlier than us, giving them an advantage we could never hope to catch up to. We had to think of something else."

"Like this fleet of intergalactic generation-ships?"

"Yes. Each fleet consists of ten of those generation-ships. When they leave they carry a trillion of our people, a number that will have doubled or tripled when they reach their destination in another galaxy. A trillion of our people gone means space and opportunities for a trillion of newborn Yirrho."

"And they'll carry enough warships with them to carve out their own empires." Ivar shook his head. "I don't get it? How can it be, that I don't know about this? This immortality-thing, for example?"

"Basically a general consensus of your elders. You young people are not told, until you reach a certain age. For once because it is the younger generation, that usually comes into contact with outsiders and as a second, young Yirrho might become careless with the safety of immortality at their back. You must have reached a certain level of maturity to execute a consciousness-transfer unharmed. Even among us older ones one out of twenty transfers ends in insanity for the Yirrho in question."

"Alright, but from what I have seen each of those generation-ship should be able to carry thousands of Grand Cuirasses and even more destroyers and frigates. Why don't we use them to fight against the empire and defend our independance?"

"Because then we would lack them for our colonisation-project. We would need additional space and resources for a trillion people more. Some of them have waited for decades to leave this galaxy. And why should we? War against the empire would cost us a lot. It might even unite the different fractions of the empire against us. We could fight them for a few years, perhaps even decades, but then their numbers would crush us. The other option would be to get into the offensive, strike at Coruscant and kill the head. If we do that, we either have to take over, becoming the new oppressors of the galaxy - for which the millions of species out there would be truly grateful - or we leave them to their own and will be faced with countless feuds and civil-wars. Let somebody else be responsible for the bloodshed."

"What will happen sooner or later anyway." added Zaar. "But we would prefer later, so we can make plans and preperations when the time comes."

"Nobody of us had something like the empire on his scopes." admitted Rugar. "We're long-term-planners and the sudden establishment of the GalacticEmpire came like something of a surprise. The current occupation of our cluster might be inconvenient, but it offers also an opportunity."

"An opportunity?" Ivar asked, unable to hide his disbelieve.

"Of course. For almost thousand years the galaxy - or at least the part that counted - was under the control of the Republic's senate and the Jedi, who both didn't trust us for their own reasons. The economy was largely centralized and trade between worlds was in the hands of organisations like the TradeFederation, the CommerceGuilde or the CorporateAlliance. So we had political and cultural reasons to follow a policy of isolationism because of the former and economic reasons because of the later. Aggressive attempts from outside to change this were answered with military might."

"An answer we can no longer successfully give, since we're now dealing with an empire, that doesn't have scruples to throw away so many lives." added Zaar. "That is the military side of the argument and the sole reason, why we invented this crazy sheme in the first place."

Ivar thought about that. "I still fail to see how there could be an opportunity or why we simply didn't became a client-state of the empire without a fight." he asked.

"Let me answer your second question first. We didn't became a client-state without a fight, because we were too successful in the past. If we had abandoned policies practiced for centuries without a fight we would have raised suspicions. As a consequence the empire would always be on guard around us. A proud and arrogant race like ours wouldn't accept surrender to anybody without a fight. The empire has to think, that they're forcing us to our happiness, when in reality we already had decided to change our policy of isolationism."

"You did?"

"Yes, Rugar and I did. You see, the ascent of the empire as dominating political and military power of the galaxy puts us into grave danger, but at the same time allows us to participate in galactic affairs under its protective cloak. Profitable affairs."

Ivar thought about what Zaar had told him so far and inside his mind he quickly made the connections. "So the ascent of the empire caused this change in attitude. An ascent accompanied or predated by the breakdown of the organs of commerce."

"Somebody has to take over for the TradeFederation, CorporateAlliance and whatelse those groups used to call themself." Rugar said with a smile. "Although - as already said - we didn't see that coming during the clone-war. That conflict could have continued for another decade and in that case we would have stayed inside our cluster. The Republic was lucky to get the leaders of the CIS and the de-activation button for the droid-armies in one stroke and be able to end the war from one moment to the other." Zaar shook his shoulders. "Instead of sitting out the galaxy tearing itself apart during the clone-war we clandestine prepare for the galaxy tearing itself apart once the empire falls. And fall it will."

"And fall it will." Ivar repeated in awe.

"Fine. From the look on your face I can see, that all questions are answered to your satisfaction." Rugar commented. "Is there anything else we can do for you?"

"Yes." the young Yiirho said with a grin. "Zaar could forget my resignation."

"Already done." the new leader of the Yiirho said.

"And I could need a new drink."

The End.


End file.
